Monday, February 3, 2014

George Clooney participated in a reddit gone wild AMA (Ask Me Anything) Q&A session on Jan. 28, where he talked about everything from his basketball skills, shoe cobbling and even joked about his "Gravity" co-star Sandra Bullock.

Clooney took part in the Reddit AMA to promote a charity called Satellite Sentinel project and his new film "The Monuments Men," which he directed, produced and stars in. The movie focuses on a group of people who attempt to rescue artwork stolen by Nazis in World War II and return them to their owners.

Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Cate Blanchett also star in "The Monuments Men," which hits theaters on Feb. 7.

Check out nine quotes from George Clooney's Reddit AMA below.

1. He loved beating Leonardo DiCaprio in basketball.

"It's true. That was a fun day. It's always fun when you play people younger than you and win. We're playing a bunch of six year olds tomorrow."

2. He likes to make (cobble, specifically) shoes, and is better at it than Daniel Day-Lewis.

"Let me just tell you this. When Daniel Day-Lewis was spending all his time playing Lincoln, I was just fixing shoes. He's spending all the time focused on the hat, and the pipe, and getting into character, and I remained focused - with the overalls and the hammer."

3. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Golden Globes joke was all in good fun ... but there will be payback.

"Usually it's pretty funny. You know I got really good by Tina and Amy the other day and I'm working on getting them back in a big way. But for the most part most of the time when it's bad it's actually funny."

"You actually feel bad for the comedians up on stage cause you know if you've ever gone to a comedy club and you see somebody bomb it makes you cringe. Shows like that are designed to have fun with you without being devastatingly unkind. I've been the target of a couple of stupid jokes that didn't work, but in general I've only seen a couple that were really vicious toward people, and they didn't work. When they don't work you feel badly for the person doing it."

4. Brad Pitt pranked him big time while filming "Ocean's 12."

"It was Brad, we were shooting Oceans 12 in my hometown in Lake Como and he had a flier sent around saying George only wants to be called by his character's name Danny Ocean, don't look him in the eyes, and it got into the local paper. As you know, jokes don't translate at all, and they called me il divo [roughly translates to "divine male performer"], and said that I was treating the crew like [expletive]. When it got into the paper I came downstairs and Brad had the paper in his hand, and I said, 'You're mine from here on out. Brad just said, 'Please don't harm my children.' Yeah, he's done some pretty rotten things."

5. He is asked if he regrets making "Batman & Robin" a lot (but he doesn't).

"I get that question a lot. It's a funny thing, you've got to remember that when you're doing a movie, a lot of times you're spending 4 or 5 months on set and sometimes you're making really good friends and sometimes not. Some of the best films have been the least fun experiences and some of the worst, I've made lifelong friends out of it.

"It's the kind of thing where the memory of the film is very different than how it was reviewed, because it's months out of your life and you end up making close friends or having great experience on films that don't necessarily work. And that's a tricky thing to come to terms with."

6. Clooney is currently filming Disney's "Tomorrowland" and was strapped to a harness during his AMA.

"I'm on set and literally have a harness on right now. I was late, because right before I was hanging from about 30 feet over four different blue screens. So as we're talking now there are all these wires and contraptions hanging off of me. It's really, really, really good and Brad [Bird]'s a wonderful director, and a wonderful guy with a wild imagination. And if I don't screw it up it'll be a terrific film. Everybody's really good in it."

"Anyway, you always have to be careful what you say about these films so I don't want to sort of ruin it by telling you that everyone dies in the end. Oops, I've said too much."

7. He jokes his "Gravity" co-star Bullock couldn't lay off the alcohol on set.

"It's tricky cause Sandy drinks so much that oftentimes it's just hard to keep her upright. No, you know, Sandy and I have known each other for over 20 years and we both were struggling actors when we first met. She was dating a friend of mine at the time who's still a good friend of ours. Every time we're together it's funny. She's somebody I adore, really, she's just fun to be in a room with."

"I'm sure people will assume people aren't quite who they appear to be on screen -- they're shorter or taller or meaner or dumber--but Sandy is exactly what she appears on screen, an incredibly charming woman who's really just fun to hang out with. Very smart and centered, even though she does drink a lot."

8. Clooney feels "The Monuments Men" offers a positive view of the world.

"Grant [Heslov] and I finished shooting The Ides of March and looked back at the films we'd been doing, and it was nothing but cynical films. We're really not cynical people, so we thought we should do one with a positive view of the world. Grant had read the book and said maybe this is a film. We took it to Sony and they loved the idea. It was less about art in what we were looking for and more about looking for a new interesting story. I didn't know the story before."

9. You (yes, you) can go on a date with Clooney for as cheap as $10.

"I think I might be the cheapest date ever, $10. I'm literally the cheapest date anyone has ever been on. Check out http://www.omaze.com/clooney. It's gonna be fun though, we are gonna get out of the car together, walk the Monuments Men red carpet, the paparazzi will take a bunch of pictures, we'll go backstage at Letterman. You'll get to see the other side of it all, which is unusual and fun."